Shreyas Talpade’s Poster Boys misuses the social issue of vasectomy for the sake of laughs. However, does it have any of those? And more importantly, is it proper to use such sensitive issues for a few chuckles. Let’s take a look at it in the Poster Boys film review.
Three individuals from a village have their photos put up on a poster advertising vasectomy (nasbandi). As they learn about it, it is too late, and their personal lives are in shambles. To restore sanity, they have to prove they didn’t undergo the operation. The trio run from one office to the other all the while trying to get their names cleared from the goof up.
For a film trying to send out a message that vasectomy is a good thing after a certain stage in your life, it uses the same to show how embarrassed the concerned individuals are almost right until the end of the film. In fact, when they aren’t embarrassed anymore, they decide to take on the authorities and garner public support by shedding their clothes.
As for the hilarious moments, Poster Boys does have a few funny bits here and there, but that’s about it. And even those are pretty juvenile for the most part. There is nothing for the discerning viewers here. The Deol brothers (Sunny and Bobby) are passable in their roles, and Shreyas Talpade is not bad either given the mediocre script.
If only the film had tried to be an intelligent comedy rather than a futile exercise with vasectomy as a subject, it would have drawn in applause from a wider audience.
Such films that elicit a chuckle from the viewers toward sensitive issues such as vasectomy should lean toward the protagonists believing that what they have done is correct and show them standing for it even against all the odds rather than portraying them feeling ashamed about it. The latter sends out a negative message, one the filmmakers do not want to be propagating.
There has to be a certain sense of sensitivity while executing socially relevant films. Poster Boys doesn’t fall into that bracket. It is thoughtless with little regard to what the audience might take away from it. An example of immature and irresponsible filmmaking, it shows how little thought filmmakers can put into their craft when their priorities aren’t properly aligned.
A recent film that carried a social message, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, shows how you can entertain the audience without abusing the social subject forming the crux of the film.
I would certainly not recommend this movie. There are far better movies that are funnier while driving home a social message intelligently and responsibly.
Poster Boys film review gives Poster Boys 1.5 out of 5
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